1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed generally to diagnostic devices, and, more particularly, to a portable diagnostic device for trouble-shooting a WAP network.
2. Description of the Background
People have come to expect reliable service from their telecommunications provider. For telecommunications occurring over a traditional pair of copper conductor telephone lines, the ability to maintain, monitor, and trouble-shoot each subscriber's telephone line as well as other circuit elements present in the associated Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) allows the telecommunications provider to deliver reliable service to its customers. For wireless telecommunications, the ability to maintain, monitor, and trouble-shoot the hardware and software associated with the wireless network allows the wireless telecommunications provider to deliver reliable service to its customers. Traditional and wireless telecommunications providers each utilize an extensive array of diagnostic tools and procedures to optimize the level of reliability experienced by their respective customers. One example of a tool regularly used to trouble-shoot a service problem being experienced by a customer is a lineman's handset, commonly referred to as a butt set or test set. The lineman's handset is a portable device that may be used by a field technician to test a particular phone line for compliance with performance standards relating to items such as dial tone reception, proper ringing signals, and noise levels.
With the advent of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), a significant number of people are now able to access Internet content via wireless devices known as WAP-enabled devices. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an application environment and a set of communication protocols for wireless devices designed to enable a user to request and receive content from the Internet, and the event of requesting and receiving content from the Internet via a WAP-enabled device is referred to as a WAP session.
A wide range of handset manufacturers already support WAP, allowing users to choose from a diverse range of WAP-enabled devices. A WAP-enabled device includes a microbrowser that is utilized to request and receive content from the Internet, and typically has an external appearance similar to that of a wireless phone. To initiate a WAP session, the WAP-enabled device transmits a request for Internet content through a wireless network to a WAP gateway, which is the interface between the wireless network and the Internet. Once the requested content has been retrieved from the Internet, the WAP gateway converts the content into a form suitable for transmission to the WAP-enabled device. The microbrowser within the WAP-enabled device interprets the converted content and displays the content on a display of the WAP-enabled device.
In view of the foregoing, it is apparent that accessing content from the Internet via a mobile WAP-enabled device requires a network that includes a mobile communication network and a data network. This type of network is referred to as a WAP network. Although there are portable diagnostic handsets that can be utilized by a network engineer to trouble-shoot the mobile communication network of the WAP network, these devices are not capable of trouble-shooting the data network of the WAP network.
Thus, there exists a need for a portable diagnostic handset that overcomes the limitations, shortcomings, and disadvantages of known portable diagnostic handsets, and may be utilized to trouble-shoot the mobile communication network and the data network of a WAP network.